Fish eggs may be much more resilient than previously thought as new research shows they can survive being eaten and can actually hatch after being defecated back out into the wild. A team of researchers from the Danube Research Institute made the discovery by testing what would happen when carp eggs were force fed to ducks in a laboratory. The team fed 8,000 eggs from two different invasive species of carp to a group of eight mallard ducks, and then examined the duck feces to see what would happen to the eggs after being eaten. The ducks' digestive system is relatively fast moving, with most eggs passing completely through within an hour of being eaten, while a small number took four hours to fully pass. In the past, scientists theorized that fish eggs might have been attached to the feathers or feet of certain species of waterbird, but the team's research introduces another potential explanation.

Source: Daily Mail June 30, 2020 17:07 UTC